Reducing Waste, Bridging the Communication Gap and Other Positive News

Tech

In an effort to address the problem of never ending waste from single-use plastic water bottles, a tech company is even infiltrating New York bodegas to help. You buy a reusable water bottle from Reefill and pay $1.99 a month for unlimited access to filtered water in bodegas around the city. The founder came up with the idea because he couldn’t find a single place to refill his water bottle, which is actually pretty shocking.

The women in Jaqueline Ros’ life have had some terrible experiences. Her sister was assaulted twice, and her grandmother was kidnapped by Guerillas in Colombia. It goes to show that even in the absence of Guerillas, scary things happen. Jaqueline wanted people to feel safe, so with the push of a button, Revolar will alert the authorities if you’re in danger. No fumbling for 911 ever again.

If you’ve tried Rosetta Stone and Duolingo and still just can’t get farther than “como estas?” even though you have a Costa Rican vacation planned, Travis may be the answer to your communication prayers. It uses mysterious AI to help you understand 80 languages from all over the world. It will also make all of your conversations twice as long as it repeats what it hears in the desired language. Perfect if you meet the dreamy love of your life while abroad, not so much if you’re on the street trying to order the local fried delicacy.

Where are they now?

This amazing campaign raised funds to create a compost toilet to reduce waste, and also reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers. Not only did they deliver their perks within two weeks of my contribution, they built the toilet! They are hosting an event near LA to celebrate, and hopefully they will not demo the project.